New Focus on How a Trump Tweet Incited Far-Right Groups Before Jan. 6
Tweet text:
Noah Bookbinder
@NoahBookbinder
Donald Trump's tweet on Dec 19, 2020 telling people "Be there, will be wild!" didn't just seem like incitement; it was. Investigators are finding it clearly drove far-right extremist activity, apparently encouraging many to make the trip to DC on Jan. 6.
Extremist groups immediately celebrated President Donald J. Trumps Twitter message on Dec. 19, 2020, and widely interpreted it as an invitation to descend on Washington in force.
nytimes.com
New Focus on How a Trump Tweet Incited Far-Right Groups Before Jan. 6
Federal prosecutors and congressional investigators are documenting how the former presidents Be there, will be wild! post became a catalyst for militants before the Capitol assault.
2:25 PM · Mar 29, 2022
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/29/us/politics/trump-tweet-jan-6.html
No paywall
https://archive.ph/IEiY8
Federal prosecutors and congressional investigators have gathered growing evidence of how a tweet by President Donald J. Trump less than three weeks before Jan. 6, 2021, served as a crucial call to action for extremist groups that played a central role in storming the Capitol.
Mr. Trumps Twitter post in the early hours of Dec. 19, 2020, was the first time he publicly urged supporters to come to Washington on the day Congress was scheduled to certify the Electoral College results showing Joseph R. Biden Jr. as the winner of the presidential vote. His message which concluded with, Be there, will be wild! has long been seen as instrumental in drawing the crowds that attended a pro-Trump rally on the Ellipse on Jan. 6 and then marched to the Capitol.
But the Justice Departments criminal investigation of the riot and the parallel inquiry by the House select committee have increasingly shown how Mr. Trumps post was a powerful catalyst, particularly for far-right militants who believed he was facing his final chance to reverse defeat and whose role in fomenting the violence has come under intense scrutiny.
Extremist groups almost immediately celebrated Mr. Trumps Twitter message, which they widely interpreted as an invitation to descend on the city in force. Responding to the presidents words, the groups sprang into action, court filings and interviews by the House committee show: Extremists began to set up encrypted communications channels, acquire protective gear and, in one case, prepare heavily armed quick reaction forces to be staged outside Washington.
*snip*